2008 BMW 1 Series 120d SE 2.0 diesel

Summary:

Terrible

Faults:

Nearly everything! Clutch, DMF, injectors, oil and cooling leaks, timing chain rattle. You name it.

General Comments:

One of my worst cars. This BMW was bought with low miles and history, yet still gave me issues.

Performance - great. Comfort - good. Positives end there.

The car in general, especially the interior, felt cheap and below BMW standards.

OK to drive, but always in the garage getting fixed.

My worst financial mistake, never again!

Gladly sold it for spares and repairs back in 2019, glad to see the end of it. Lost a lot of money on it. Previous Audi A3 was much better. Sorry, BMW.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 26th July, 2026

27th Jul 2026, 20:35

2008 MY? You couldn't be more unlucky. This was the first production year for the infamous N47 engine. Reliability for these engines are a joke and to make things worse, these are expensive and difficult to work on. They never got the N47 engine right, later are bad, two first production years absolutely horrible.

You think modern or newer BMWs means quality? Think again! Generally complete sh!te. Anything after early 2000 is designed and built to a slim budget, like all newer German "premium" brands.

2007 BMW 1 Series SE 116i 1.6 petrol

Summary:

Poor

Faults:

Radiator fan.

Clutch.

ABS.

Oil leak.

Timing chain (expensive).

General Comments:

Reasonably comfortable and economical when it was working. Positives end there.

One of the worst cars I ever had, not up to BMW standards. Build quality was poor and whenever anything went wrong it was always serious and expensive.

Timing chain stretched and I was quoted £3000 at BMW. I found an independent that did it for £1500, but this was still too much.

Cramped interior, cheap plastics.

Not bad to drive, but not great either.

Never again. Do not bother with a 1 series of this generation, they are too old now and they were not great even when relatively new. I heard the newer models from 2011 onward improved on build, but I'd still be cautious.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 29th October, 2025

2010 BMW 1 Series 116d ES 2.0 diesel

Summary:

Overrated

Faults:

Clutch + flywheel (expensive).

Oil leak.

Cam sensor, ABS sensor.

Plus all the usual wear and tear. The car was looked after well, received all services.

General Comments:

A typical car from the year 2010, this 1 series tries to be cool and fails. Fairly boring little hatchback and below BMW standards in my opinion.

ES model is very basic, interior felt cheap and plasticky. Not many options.

OK to drive, handled all right and the controls were smooth. Was also comfortable enough to be in for long journeys.

Engine was nothing special - diesel engine I thought would feel powerful in a pretty small hatchback, but it could barely move, you had to use full throttle to get anywhere. Even driving carefully I barely averaged 48 mpg. Official stats are 60 mpg on average. Unrealistic I know, but most cars I have drove I always got near or achieved the average, but never in this car no matter how hard I tried.

Very dull to look at, boring 16 inch wheels and silver exterior, as 90% of cars from this time seem to be silver!

Couldn't wait to get rid of it to be honest. Don't get me wrong, it is not a really bad car, just expensive to fix and overrated. There are better options out there for the money.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 11th March, 2024

11th Mar 2024, 21:38

Clutches and flywheels on modern cars are not the usual $350 job anymore; definitely all diesels and most (if not all) petrol cars (like the Ford Mondeo) have dual-mass flywheels, none of which are cheap regardless of brand. What used to be a moderately-priced wear and tear item is now eye watering, that automatics are becoming more affordable to repair.

I just did some quick checks on the specs of your car and its other variants - I suppose it's how it was tuned (instead of BMW running a separate engine line to create a 1.6, cheaper to just retune the existing 2.0 down to perform like a 1.6), and it's still quite a revelation that for a 2.0 16-V car, its 0-60 is around the 10s mark, whereas the 120d with the same displacement, can do it in just over 7s.

I can see why you'd say it's overrated; at least in 116d guise. As with most cars, if you pick the variant with a mediocre engine/tune, it totally wipes out any possible brilliance that the rest of the car could've shown. Like another review for a SEAT a few weeks ago, I think the engine in the car was the 1.0 3-cylinder, which was underwhelming, but if they got the 1.4 version of the same car, they'd have been far more satisfied.

13th Mar 2024, 13:07

It doesn't sound THAT bad for a car that age (a clutch at 70k is FW&T).

In reply to 13th Mar 2024, 13:07

16th Mar 2024, 16:03

I am on my original clutch and flywheel. I have owned my 2010 BMW 120D since new. I am now on 287k miles.